Epic Games closing servers of multiple Xbox games in January

Epic Games has announced server closures for multiple games, including various Rock Band and Dance Central titles, and is already in the process of delisting some from digital storefronts.

As per an announcement from Epic Games, the publisher will shut down online services for Dance Central, Dance Central 2, Dance Central 3, Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Rock Band 3, Green Day: Rock Band, The Beatles: Rock Band, Rock Band Blitz, and Unreal Tournament 3 on January 24th, 2023.

Epic Games closing servers for numerous games in January

"Starting today, we will begin turning off out-of-date online services and servers for many older games in the Epic family as we move to solely support Epic Online Services with its unified friends system, voice chat features, parental controls, and parental verification features. Most titles will be playable offline, while some will no longer be playable," Epic Games says. "We apologise to the players affected by these changes."

Epic Games server closures set for January 24th, 2023

As far as we can tell, it appears that not many of these games feature online-only achievements. It seems that just Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and Unreal Tournament 3 are the only games with achievements that you'll need to unlock before they're discontinued.

Epic Games also notes that it has "plans to bring back online features via Epic Online Services in the future" for Unreal Tournament 3. Whether this applies to the Xbox version of the game is currently unclear, as Epic has announced a new free-to-play PC version of the first-person shooter.

The publisher has also started delisting games from digital storefronts and has disabled in-game purchasing of DLC packs. "We have started removing games that were still available from all digital storefronts and are disabling any in-game DLC purchasing as of today," Epic says. However, Harmonix has confirmed in its Discord that Rock Band DLC will still be purchasable via digital stores.

What are your thoughts on this? Are you sad to see these games go? Let us know down in the comments.

Written by Sean Carey

With a deep love for Xbox and achievements, Sean has committed to playing the best RPGs, racing games, and first-person shooters Xbox Game Pass and his precious free time will allow. Prior to joining TrueAchievements, Sean gained a degree in journalism from Solent University.